Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition is a long time coming. It has been three years since the last entry into the franchise, but the groundwork for the third chapter in the series began five years ago right after finishing touches were put on Origins. The result is what executive producer Mark Darrah called the fantasy game BioWare always wanted to make.

He said it’s larger than Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 combined in terms of content and square footage. When it comes to speech, there are 80,000 lines of dialogue.

I had a chance to play about five hours of the campaign, and the experience was overwhelming. There’s a lot to take in with a project that partly mixes open-world design with war-campaign strategy and tactical combat. It’s unusual to say the least, and it will take a while for players to figure out the systems.Continue Reading →

For all its rich fantasy lore, Dragon Age was always lacking in one important aspect — the environment. The fantasy world never had the huge scope that fans expected. Players couldn’t travel from one end of the country on foot, unimpeded by loading screens. They had to open up a map, pick where they wanted to go and they’d be taken to an area that was looked bland and mundane.

That all changes with Dragon Age: Inquisition because for the first time players will be able to explore the world freely. If they see it, they can go there, and that uninterrupted freedom makes the game already light years ahead of its predecessors.

12:46: Battlefield: Hardline is being described as a TV cop drama. They’re also discussing the origin from a Battlefield 3 expansion pack. It’s actually cool to see how the game looks like when it’s full of players. Wow, interesting moves like ziplining. Nice touches like shooting out the glass while you’re driving. So many semi scripted events. You can even zipline onto a motorcycle. Wow. So many epic moments. I like how they use the destructable environments to change pathways in a level. The one question I have i show much of this is scripted and how much is natural.

That was an impressive demo.

12:36: OMG. It’s Mirror’s Edge 2. They’re explaining Faith as a character, right down to the character. They’re building on the move set of the first Mirror’s Edge. The combat for Mirror’s Edge is good. They’re adding new moves to expand the gameplay. I like the concepts. Argh. I want it now.

12:33: Dawngate is being shown. The team is explaining why it’s different from other MOBAs. It’s story-driven, there’s a meta game, etc.